It has always been said that staying under the sun can be very harmful to the human body. This is probably one of the many reasons why you've always had a love-hate relationship with the sun. When you were younger, you learn that the sun gives plants the energy and warms you up when you're cold. However, you may have also heard that the harmful UV rays of the sun can destroy your skin, and put you at risk for certain kinds of cancers. And although these facts have been going on for several generations now, a new study suggests that people who enjoy the sun can actually live longer than those who avoid it.
The study made an in-depth investigation on the phenomenon that women who sunbathe have a higher chance of living longer compared to those who avoid the sun even though sunbathers have a higher risk of developing skin cancer. For the study, the researchers at the Karolinska University Hospital and Lund University in Sweden analyzed the information of 29,518 Swedish women whom they have followed for 20 years.
The data showed longer life expectancy for those women who habitually exposed themselves to the sun. It was also revealed, according to sciencedaily.com, that these sun exposure habits were directly related to lower incidence of heart disease and non-cancer/non-heart disease deaths.
"We found smokers in the highest sun exposure group were at a similar risk as non-smokers avoiding sun exposure, indicating avoidance of sun exposure to be a risk factor of the same magnitude as smoking," said Dr. Pelle Lindqvist, lead author of the Journal of Internal Medicine study. "Guidelines being too restrictive regarding sun exposure may do more harm than good for health."
Medical Daily reported that it is still unsure what caused sun exposure and longer life expectancy to be related. However, they may already have a few guesses in mind. The researchers think that this longevity has something to do with vitamin D or other UV-related mechanisms.
It was revealed that you will be at risk of skin cancer when you are continually exposed to the sun. The researchers also found a 90 percent nonmelanoma and 86 percent melanoma skin cancer cases that can be related to UV radiation exposure. And although skin cancer is common, it does not usually lead to death.
The study showed that women with high exposure to sun have an increased rate of survival than their sun-shy friends, however because of their extended lifespans, their chances of being dead from cancer also increased.
